Agentic Commerce: Adapting Ecommerce SEO Strategies for the AI Era

Slides from SMX Advanced in Boston, MA (June 2026).

Product discovery is shifting from traditional search to agent-mediated results, and ecommerce SEO needs a new focus: complete data coverage across systems. This session covers how emerging protocols like UCP (Universal Commerce Protocol) are reshaping the discovery layer, how AI agents ingest and act on product data, and the architecture steps required to keep your catalog visible as search shifts from clicks to actions.

You'll learn how to evaluate how UCP connects your catalog to AI agents, audit your product data for gaps that limit visibility on agentic channels, and map a readiness plan to structure your catalog for AI-mediated discovery.

Transcript

1. Agentic Commerce: Adapting Ecommerce SEO Strategies for the AI Era Kyle Risley, Sr. SEO Lead @ Shopify
2. Search…
3. Ask anything… Hi, what’s on your mind today?
4. Buy anything… Hi, what’s on your mind today?
5. …what exactly is agentic commerce?
6. Agentic commerce is a spectrum of purchase delegation.
7. The agentic commerce spectrum
8. Where do agentic commerce protocols fit into this?
9. Adapted from: modelcontextprotocol.io
10. Source: ucp.dev
11. The agentic commerce spectrum
12. Discover: AI recommends products Level 1 of 4 Source: Google AI Mode
13. Discover: AI recommends products Level 1 of 4 Source: Google AI Mode
14. Discover: AI recommends products Level 1 of 4 Source: forma.la
15. Level Commerce protocol required? Incremental enablers 1. Discover Additive Web index, product feed, structured data Commerce protocols are not required for Discover
16. Complete: AI enables native checkout Level 2 of 4 Source: Google AI Mode
17. Level Commerce protocol required? Incremental enablers 1. Discover Additive Web index, product feed, structured data 2. Complete Yes Native checkout, payment handlers, fulfillment Complete requires UCP capabilities like checkout
18. Monos UCP profile: monos.com/.well-known/ucp
19. Source: monos.com
20. Delegate: AI executes orders against standing rules Level 3 of 4 Not real - hypothetical. For illustrative purposes only.
21. Level Commerce protocol required? Incremental enablers 1. Discover Additive Web index, product feed, structured data 2. Complete Yes Checkout, payment handlers, fulfillment 3. Delegate Yes AP2 Mandates Delegate may use UCP extensions like AP2 Mandates
22. Coordinate: AI orchestrates systems toward a goal Level 4 of 4 Not real - hypothetical. For illustrative purposes only.
23. Level Commerce protocol required? Incremental enablers 1. Discover Additive Web index, product feed, structured data 2. Complete Yes Checkout, payment handlers, fulfillment 3. Delegate Yes AP2 Mandates 4. Coordinate Yes Inter-agent communication via A2A Coordinate is enabled by inter-agent communication
24. Good news!
25. If you’re on Shopify, agentic commerce is handled for you.
26. Commerce protocol integration paths Platform The commerce platform handles implementation. Custom Build The merchant follows integration steps and joins a waitlist
27. “Ok. So how do I rank in AI search?”
28. Success = accessibility + comprehension + authority Accessibility Is your site reachable to AI agents? Comprehension Is your site understood by AI agents? Authority Is your site trusted by AI agents?
29. Accessibility
30. Ensure accessibility at /robots.txt and CDN layer ❏ Traditional web index: Googlebot, Bingbot, et al ❏ LLM web index: Claude-SearchBot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot ❏ LLM training (optional): GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended ❏ User-triggered actions: Google-Agent, ChatGPT-User, Claude-User, Perplexity-User ❏ Shopping flow: Storebot-Google
31. Comprehension
32. Most AI bots do not reliably render JS! Render critical content server side.
33. Critical content to render server side ❏ Core HTML on-page factors (title, text, images, links) ❏ Structured data (product, reviews) ❏ User reviews* ❏ FAQs/Q&A* *Commonly client-side rendered via 3P apps/integrations
34. Source: https://onely.com/tools/wwjd/ Javascript Disabled Javascript Enabled
35. Source: https://onely.com/tools/wwjd/ Javascript Disabled Javascript Enabled
36. Check how JS renders your page content ❏ onely.com/tools/wwjd/ ❏ algorythmic.co/llm-content-visibility-scanner/ ❏ or just disable JS in your browser for quick checks :)
37. Product data quality is more important than ever.
38. primary data sources = complete + error-free + aligned ❏ 3P product feeds (e.g. Google Merchant Center Feed) ❏ 1P platform data (e.g. Shopify Catalog) ❏ Website content (e.g. PDP HTML)
39. Most common product feed data quality issues ❏ Missing attributes (age group, gender, color, size) ❏ Missing identifiers (gtin, mpn, brand) ❏ Missing policies (shipping, returns) ❏ Image quality (broken, generic, missing, too small) ❏ New minimum: 500 x 500 starting Jan 2027 (best: 1500 x 1500) ❏ Check your Google Merchant Center account for errors/issues
40. Include specs on your product detail pages.
41. Source: Google Gemini
42. Source: thehydrojug.com
43. Source: thehydrojug.com
44. Authority
45. Your brand needs contextual mentions.
46. Mentions have the strongest correlation with AI visibility 1. YouTube mentions (being mentioned in many videos) 2. YouTube mention impressions (being mentioned in popular videos) 3. Branded web mentions 4. Branded anchors 5. Branded search volume Source: Ahrefs “Top Brand Visibility Factors in ChatGPT…” (Dec 2025)
47. Google Shopping visibility may carry over to ChatGPT
48. Study: “ChatGPT favors higher Google Shopping positions” Source: Search Engine Land “New finding: ChatGPT sources 83%...” (Mar 2026)
49. Study: “ChatGPT sources 83% of its carousel products from Google Shopping via shopping query fan-outs” Source: Search Engine Land “New finding: ChatGPT sources 83%...” (Mar 2026)
50. Your agentic readiness plan
51. Your products are accessible and readable 1. Audit robots.txt and CDN access 2. Confirm critical PDP content is crawlable without JS a. Check your 3P apps 3. Product feeds are live, synced, and error free 4. Fix top Merchant Center issues
52. Product pages provide complete context 1. Surface relevant dimensions, specs, features, and use cases 2. Lots of content? Include headings for scannability 3. Answer pre-purchase FAQs 4. Publish ratings & reviews on the page 5. Include required Product Schema markup
53. AI systems still need trust signals 1. Earn mentions, reviews, links a. e.g. affiliates, expert reviews, YouTube, etc. 2. Build association with key categories and use cases 3. Improve visibility in traditional search and shopping surfaces
54. Prepare for native agentic checkout 1. Confirm your integration path a. Platform or custom 2. Validate checkout inputs: payment, tax, shipping, returns 3. Select eligible products (e.g. avoid required custom inputs)
55. Let’s go! 🚀 Try my UCP explorer tool: KyleRisley.com